In Ohio, GOP candidates circle Trump’s sun before primary
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Josh Mandel’s wager was simple: No one would outflank him in mirroring Donald Trump, either on hard-right America First positions or the bellicose, come-at-me style of the former president.
So, Mandel said of Black Lives Matter activists, “They are the racists, not us.” He stirred animosity toward migrants, including refugees from Afghanistan, and falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The Jewish grandson of a Holocaust survivor whose website features a Christian cross, Mandel stumped mostly in evangelical churches, claiming “there’s no such thing” as separation of church and state.
For a long time, it worked. Mandel was the presumed front-runner in the crowded Republican field for U.S. senator from Ohio. The primary election in Ohio is today.
But two weeks ago, the one person he sought most to impress — the former president — spurned Mandel, a former state treasurer, and bestowed his coveted endorsement on J.D. Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author, remaking the race overnight.
Vance, who had been trailing in polls and running low on money, has seen a surge in donations and support since Trump’s embrace, as the first major Senate midterm primary election entered its final weekend before today’s voting.
And around the state, Republicans including Mandel; Vance; Mike Gibbons, a self-funded businessman; and state Sen. Matt Dolan fanned out in a preview of national GOP politics to come — different moons circling Trump’s sun.
On Saturday, Vance campaigned with two far-right members of Congress, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia
and Matt Gaetz of Florida. Mandel hopscotched across the state’s big cities — Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati — with a conservative ally of his own, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
To longtime acquaintances and observers of Mandel, 44, who early in his career promoted civility and bipartisanship, his unrequited embrace of Trumpism and divisiveness suggested there was a price on political calculation.
“I see the desperation there these last few months,” said Matt Cox, a former Republican operative who was an early adviser to
Mandel before a falling-out. “I think his strategy was: All right, Trump won Ohio by 8 points twice. All I have to do to become the nominee is to become the most like Trump.”
The candidate most left on the sidelines since Trump’s nod at Vance, according to polls, has been Jane Timken. The only woman running, Timken was endorsed by Ohio’s retiring senator, Rob Portman, a center-right throwback to an earlier Ohio GOP who voted with Senate Democrats for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Timken has solid Trump-era credentials — she chaired the state party while Trump was in office — but she does not mimic the former president’s aggrieved style, which has been a key to unlocking the most fervent Republican voters. She has set herself apart from rivals who she says seek every day to get themselves “canceled on Twitter” with their statements and antics.
In a debate in March, Mandel nearly got into a physical confrontation with Gibbons.
At a Baptist church in Columbus on Saturday, Mandel took aim at popular targets of the right, including transgender people, Republicans with “jelly knees” like Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and the “liberal media in the back of the room” ( just minutes after greeting reporters amicably by name in a private room).
Fitting the setting, the largely older crowd in the pews called out encouraging “amens!” or groaned audibly when Mandel named enemies.
“The reason that we’re going to win on Tuesday is because we have this army of Christian warriors throughout the state,’’ he pledged.
One pastor present, Dan Wolvin, said he “felt sorry” for
Trump over the Vance endorsement, saying he was “listening to the wrong people.” Still, Wolvin predicted the Trump nod would gain Vance “about 5 points” on Election Day, while conceding, “it’s a lot for Josh to make up.”
Spurned or not, Mandel was still flying the Trump flag.
“I supported President Trump yesterday. I support him today, and I’ll continue to support him tomorrow,” he said. He predicted the former president would return to the White House, “and I look forward to working with him.”